Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Building on what we learned last week with the drill "Three Way", we again address shooting on the move with this week's drill. The setup is simple: you start in a box with 3 targets in front of you but must move to a second box to be able to see and engage a steel target. We run the drill two ways. First, we start and immediately move to the second box, and shoot everything from there. Next, we shoot the entire string on the move. Based on what we know from last week, it is shown again that it's much faster to shoot on the move when starting at 7 yards. We then move back to 10 yards and repeat the drill. Again, it was faster to shoot on the move. Moving back to 15 yards is where it gets interesting. It was still faster for us to shoot on the move at 15 yards, but the hits were not always as good. If you are a lower classed shooter, or not used to shooting on the move much, chances are you will want to post up at 15 yards and shoot from a stationary position....

BUT, don't let that discourage you. The point of this drill is to establish a base line time while shooting from the stationary position, and then work at shooting on the move until you can beat that time. If you can already beat that time, great. Work on picking up that speed even more and make sure you're getting those alphas! Some of you may find that shooting on the move at 10 yards or even 7 is already pretty difficult, and that's fine. Work on it from that distance until you feel comfortable with your footwork and your hits and challenge yourself as much as you can. You may not choose to shoot on the move at 15 yards in a match situation, but it's good to know that you can if you need to. Additionally, practicing this skill at 15 yards makes shooting at 5 or 7 yards on the move seem really easy.

Remember to run the drill in the reverse direction too! For most people there will be a preferred direction of movement for this drill and you will need to make sure you are equally proficient in going both directions.